US boycotts UN human rights conference with drone resolution looming

Pakistani leaders hope to convince the United Nations Human Rights Council to pass a resolution that would force US drone strikes to adhere to international law – a request that inspired the US to boycott the talks altogether. The resolution urges that all “states” using drones should ensure that they are complying “with their obligations…

Army Laser Passes Drone-Killing Test

Truck-mounted Army laser shoots down mortars and drones like those promised by Amazon, DHL. How do you eliminate a drone? With a giant frickin’ laser beam. Commercial package-delivery drones such as those revealed by Amazon and DHL could face danger from more than shotgun-toting, UAV-hunting yahoos following the successful test of a drone-killing laser by…

Airborne Laser

The ABL weapon system consists of a high-energy, chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) mounted on a modified 747-400F (freighter) aircraft to shoot down theater ballistic missiles in their boost phase. A crew of four, including pilot and copilot, would be required to operate the airborne laser, which would patrol in pairs at high altitude, about…

The Future Is Now: Navy To Deploy Lasers On Ships By 2014

The Pentagon has plans to deploy its first ever ship-mounted laser next year, a disruptive, cutting-edge weapon capable of obliterating small boats and unmanned aerial vehicles with a blast of infrared energy. Navy officials announced Monday that in early 2014, a solid-state laser prototype will be mounted to the fantail of the USS Ponce and…

Raytheon’s Ship-Mounted Laser Weapon Incinerates a UAV in Flight

Raytheon revealed its next-gen directed energy weapon at the Farnborough Air Show, releasing video showing its Laser Weapons System (LaWS) — a six-laser weapon that focuses on a single target — engaging and then destroying an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) from the deck of a Navy vessel at sea. The tests conducted show the LaWS…

Nuclear UAV Drones Could Fly for Months at a Time

A General Atomics MQ-9 (aka Predator B, Reaper or Guardian) UAV drone’s flight duration could be increased from days to months with the addition of a nuclear power source according to military research. Nuclear-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that would increase operational flight durations from days to months are a technological possibility today, according to…